Acer Reveals First Chromebook with 4th Gen Intel Core i3 Processor

Acer America tried to gain even more dominance in the Chromebook market today with the announcement of the industry’s first Chromebook using a 4th Generation Intel Core i3 processor. The Acer C720 Chromebook which we reviewed earlier this year is now available in two new models powered by the 4th Generation Intel Core i3-40005U processor (1.7GHz, 3MB L3 cache) to deliver better multitasking performance and longer battery life.

Acer claims it currently controls just over 46 percent of the market share for Chromebooks, and the updated C720 models should deliver a nice bump in overall performance for those users who want more computing muscle than a tablet and don’t care about Windows. The Acer C720-3404 will have 4GB of memory and will be priced at $379.99, while the Acer C720-3871 will have 2GB of memory and will be priced at $349.99. Both of these new Chromebooks will be available this month at retailers in North America.

The new processor should deliver up to 8.5 hours of battery life, making these Chromebooks ideal for students or families who don’t need access to Windows or MacOS software and are content using the the Google ecosystem and Chrome apps for school, work and entertainment. The new Acer C720-3404 and C720-3871 will both have that same 32GB Solid State Drive that boots up in less than 7 seconds and resumes nearly instantly from sleep mode.

Both models feature an 11.6-inch “ComfyView” HD display with a 1366×768 resolution. You’ll also get a standard HDMI port for connecting to an external monitor, USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 port, as well as 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and an integrated HD webcam with microphone.

Be sure to take a look at our full review of the Acer C720 with Intel Celeron processor to get an idea of what you can expect from these new Chromebooks … minus the boost in speed from the new Intel chip.

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jescott
July 18, 2014 at 8:08 pm

For $379 I won’t buy a Chromebook. Even with better hardware, I am really just buying hardware because Chrome OS is not much of a operating system. You could load Chrome browser on your Mac or PC and basically have Chrome OS. Plus you would have much better hardware and a full blown operating system in OS X or Windows. That in itself would make Chrome browser better then it is on a Chromebook. You can buy a Windows PC with a Core i3 for arond $400 or less. I’ve seen deals that bring that down to around what this Chromebook cost? Why since Chrome OS is free and OEM’s pay Microsoft a fee for Windows is this Chromebook not in the $300 range? Because the OEM’s have found a way to gain better margins from Chromebook’s. I don’t hate Chromebooks, I have a Samsung Chromebook I paid $200 for. That’s plenty for basically a Linux shell to run minimalist hardware and a browser. At least with the Acer Chromebook you can hopefully still install a full Linux next to Chrome OS. That at least makes your investment more flexible. I still recommend going out and buying a cheap PC notebook and installing Chrome browser. At least when you get tired of Google’s ecosystem you can run another browser and other software. You are not stuck in the Google world.

HiDesertNM
July 20, 2014 at 6:51 am

I agree jescott. Don’t care much for chrome browser and that’s all you get with this. After the last couple of updates to Firefox I have to say that is browser perfection. W8 is not bad once you install classic shell and run XP style cascade start menu and turn off the stupid charms bar. After that, I think W8.1 update 1 is a solid OS. Chrome OS is far too limiting.